1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coin processing machine for counting coins to process the counted coins, and more particularly to a counting device for use with the coin processing machine for counting the coins, which are guided into their path, by bringing the coins one by one into contact with a counting gear to turn this gear.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A variety of coin processing machines, such as a coin packing machine or a coin counting machine, have heretofore been used to count a number of coins of the same or different kinds. Especially, the coin packing machine is made capable of packing a preset number of the counted coins with packing paper. For this purpose, such coin processing machine is normally equipped with a counting mechanism. A counter of mechanical type has been developed as such a counting mechanism. In this mechanical type counter, a gear is turned back and forth for the purpose of counting. Even if, therefore, the mechanism coactive with that gear is reversed when the coins jam up in their path, the counted number is correspondingly subjected to adding or subtracting operations so that it can be free from varying so much as to lead to mistakes. Such mechanical type counter has, however, a drawback in that it takes much time in the case of processing thousands of coins because its counting speed is considerably low.
In order to speed up the counting operation, there has also been developed a coin processing machine which is equipped with a counting mechanism using an electronic type counter. Since, however, the coin processing machine of electronic type has not such a function as to take out the signals indicative of backward rotations in case the counting mechanism is turned backward, the counted number for the backward rotation is also added and increased, with the resultant drawback of the mistaken counting operation.